Good news for Fastag, metro card users! RBI allows automatic recharge facility via e-mandate

financialexpress.com:

In a move aimed at making travel by road and metro hassle-free, the Reserve Bank has allowed processing of recurring transactions through e-mandate, which means users can recharge Fastag and National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) through an automatic replenishment facility.

“The current e-mandate framework requires a pre-debit notification at least a 24-hours before the actual debit from customer’s account. It is proposed to exempt this requirement for payments made from customer’s account for automatic replenishment of balances in Fastag, NCMC, etc. under the e-mandate framework,” the RBI said in a statement.

The central bank said it will now be allowed to include payments, such as replenishment of balances in Fastag, NCMC, etc, which are recurring in nature but without any fixed periodicity, into the e-mandate framework.

The framework for processing of e-mandate for recurring transactions currently enables recurring payments with fixed periodicity such as daily, weekly, monthly, etc.

Also read: RBI to set up Digital Payments Intelligence Platform to check payment frauds – Here’s all you need to know

RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said that these categories of payments are made as and when needed and, therefore, their replenishment is not time specific or amount specific. “

“Under the e-mandate framework, it is proposed to introduce an automatic replenishment facility for such payments. The automatic replenishment will be triggered when the balance in Fastag or NCMC falls below a threshold amount set by the customer,” he added.

Auto-replenishment of UPI Lite wallet

In another major decision, the RBI has proposed bringing UPI Lite within the ambit of the e-mandate framework by introducing an auto-replenishment facility